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Connected We Stand! Post-deregulation: new challenges, uneven landscape, gaps in licensing The survival of tertiary education/research The connectivity opportunities: undersea, terrestrial, intra- and inter-campus The power of cooperation:Bandwidth, cost of core technologies, quality of service, LANs Building and maintaining HR capacity

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A Supportive Ecosystem Examples from other regions Partnerships in technology, capacity building -- -> development partners, other NRENS, UA leverages a range of initiatives Institutional development imperatives: access to technologies that transform research and education

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NREN Genome Normally, members must be research and/or educational institutions Recognised by other RENS – Inclusiveness and Acceptable Use Policy Provides member institutions with – Fast links between member campuses – Connectivity to other RENs worldwide & the Internet Carries only traffic coming from or destined for a REN – Never transit traffic that both comes from and is destined for a commodity network

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NRENs at the Cutting Edge Ensure that advanced networking traffic is not disabled by congestion from commodity- type traffic Develop next-generation networking and applications in research and higher education

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Focus on the Basics Human network that provides a structure to produce and share knowledge – Users of physical network A “bandwidth consortium” – Negotiate affordable Internet access – Lobby government and regulator Help develop ICT capacity within members Nurture local content networks Represent country in regional initiatives –RRENs- like UbuntuNet-Alliance

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Our Thesis “Improved and affordable regional and international connectivity is critical success factor for open access in all its forms and will enable African researchers to generate a proportionate amount of intellectual property goods to achieve parity with the rest of the world”

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The NREN Trinity Physical Network Connects educational and research institutions to each other and to other NRENs “Commercial” or “Commodity” Internet Human Network Provide a structure to produce and share knowledge Users of the physical network Technology Relationships Network

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The Sharing Imperative Provide strong foundation for better connectivity as we strive to effectively participate in a globalized, knowledge driven society Sharing (academic) human resource and expertise – Common courses that can be delivered over E-learning platforms – Easy portability of students and their records Sharing costs for common software and platforms as well as ICT expertise Increasing research and academic collaboration among institutions

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Horizons II: General Services Capacity building through practical training ICT procurement advisory Support to content networks National Internet eXchange Point (IXP) Exists but is currently neglected Providers are each afraid of the other running it NRENs are domain name registrars in some countries - Egyptian EUN is the manager of the.eg domain

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Thank you To the many NRENs around the world that have shared different kinds of resources with RENU To the many partners who continue to make generous contributions and prod RENU on as we learn how to walk To our members for having the audacity to dream where nothing existed Thank you all for listening!